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To: Tom Kearney who wrote (158383)	7/8/2003 12:01:22 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

How do we get out of the hole dug for us by the Bush team? Monday, July 7, 2003 Letter to the Editor BY DONALD KEGLOVITZ I have held off writing this for months. I think it was because I didn't want people to think that I was not in support of our troops. In reality, I am very much in support of our troops because I am a veteran and the pain I feel each day for the poor families who are losing their sons, daughters, husbands and fathers in what President George W. Bush is calling "defending our country" is a mockery. We were not defending our country in the Korean War or in Vietnam. We were fighting for the rights of a group of people in these strange lands to keep them from being overtaken by political fanatics who wanted to rule them. Most people in America didn't understand our being there any more than the soldiers who were sent there, but there was, nevertheless, a reason for our being there. In the case of Vietnam, these soldiers were sent to defend a country that had been overwhelmed by war for years. They went as they were asked and were spit on when they came home and called "baby killers." Most of the Vietnam veterans were ashamed to say that they were veterans of that war because of the misunderstanding that most of America had toward their being there. How strange it is that today the country is all in this "Support our Troops" frenzy to the point that anybody speaking out with an opposing view is ridiculed to the point that they have to go in hiding. The Dixie Chicks and several of our well-known celebrities are blackballed and made jokes of because they made a statement that is unpopular today. Our president has done more harm to this country than any other former president including his predecessors, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. I have to give him credit, though, because if nothing else, he is a clever politician. From the time he took office, he started manufacturing all of the material needed to gain revenge on Saddam Hussein. With all of the support he derived from the downing of the World Trade Center in New York, the American people were all behind him to get the "terrorists" who committed that devious crime. Sure, we went to Afghanistan to punish the terrorists led by our longtime nemesis, Osama bin Laden. What made it even better for us was the fact that the revenge was on television each and every day. Reality TV. So, we went into Afghanistan, destroyed their country and left as quickly as we entered. Not to worry. At the same time we were involved in Afghanistan, we were also sending ships, troops and armor on the way to the outskirts of Iraq because Mr. Bush had convinced the Congress, the American people and enough other supporting countries that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons to turn on us and eventually eradicate us. He didn't convince the United Nations, but what does a little thing like the United Nations matter? He would prove that not only did Saddam have weapons of mass destruction and chemical warfare with which to destroy us, but he was working hand-in-hand with Osama bin Laden to create terror around the world. Now that we have totally destroyed Iraq without finding Saddam Hussein, it is left for our soldiers to act as police and to try to quell the fighting between the Shiites, the Baath Party, the Kurds and God knows how many others. The people in Iraq hate us and do not want us there, but what can we do at this point? President Bush is determined to force a democracy on these people who have been fighting with each other for centuries. What Mr. Bush should be doing is making our democracy work first before trying to force democracy on others. Every day I read in the paper and hear on the news of our soldiers being killed by snipers and what appear to be ordinary Iraqis. The war supposedly is over, but believe me the war is just starting. How can our president look a mother or father of a murdered soldier in the face and say in all honesty he or she died defending our country. Give me a break. I read where our soldiers try getting money supposedly for the purpose of helping these poor people only to find out that the red tape involved made it impossible to receive. No water, no electricity, no money and every home is allowed to have at least one weapon for their "defense." As you said in the Kalamazoo Gazette June 26, "We are losing the peace." How true, but how do we get out of the hole in which Mr. Bush has put us? Mr. Bush is not worried, though, because he is jaunting around the country raising $200 million for the next election and he has made us all very happy by giving a tax cut to the only people in this country who don't need it. The tax cut alone is going to cost the taxpayers another $83 billion added to the $350 billion he asked for to pay for rebuilding Iraq. Correction: He asked for $750 billion but the Congress only gave him the $350 billion. I guess I wouldn't be so disturbed about the loss of our soldiers and those soldiers of the other countries who sent troops except for the fact that Mr. Bush never served in combat or served in anything but the National Guard because if he had, he would feel some of the hurt that many American families are feeling every day that another soldier dies needlessly. Even the thought of having to wear the combat gear, a rifle and whatever other protection you can muster in heat over 120 degrees, is enough to make a person cry. We are in so deep in trying to recover our dignity in Iraq and Afghanistan that I see no way out. On top of all that, we have not captured Osama bin Laden or stopped the terrorists and we have not killed or captured Saddam Hussein or found weapons of mass destruction or chemical warfare -- but we're going to bring democracy to both countries. After the next election I will personally go to Florida and count the ballots because we can't let this happen a second time. ________________________________________ Donald Keglovitz of Kalamazoo is a Korean War veteran and was chairman of the Kalamazoo Valley Korean War Veterans Association responsible for the monument in Bronson Park. He has been an honor guard for 12 years at Fort Custer Cemetery. mlive.com